


Veiled In Black

by Moon_Raccoon_exe



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: I tried and failed to come up with some title, I'm not sure what this is, Is it romance, M/M, but i loved writing it, ending spoilers, is it a happy ending? idk, is it angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 01:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12948681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Raccoon_exe/pseuds/Moon_Raccoon_exe
Summary: [For Gladnis Week 2017, Day 5][Prompt: Marriage]As Noctis heads to the throne room to fulfill the prophecy, the three last Kingsglaives stand outside protecting the Citadel from an endless hoard of daemons.Gladio made a promise to Ignis long ago, and fears they may not live before he fulfills it, but sees no answer to survive through this.But Gladio is a man of word and will do anything to do as promised, even if not as expected.





	Veiled In Black

**Author's Note:**

> I feel I am forgetting something.
> 
> Enjoy! And let me know what you think, please? c:

“Ignis!”

The adviser hit his head badly when he was thrown against the ground, and it took him a bit longer than usual to recover. He managed to come up to a forearm and a hand, but stayed there, letting out a hissed groan of pain. Despite his blindness, he felt the world turning upside-down for a moment, and he lost orientation. He spat quietly, savoring the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Shaking, he tried to recover himself and started coming up. He could sense the daemon way too close, and he heard it shriek in anger in front of him. Whatever was in front of him was about to attack him, and he could not shake away the disorientation. He looked up and summoned a lance in a hand; somehow, anyhow, he had to defend himself. It was senseless to try to avoid all hits, but he had to avoid most, as many as possible, if he wanted to last.

Almost as soon as he summoned his lance, a big figure appeared as if out of nowhere and stood in front of him; in the same second than this figure appeared between him and the daemon, he heard a loud crash of metal against metal, a sound he had grown familiar with; something hitting against a shield. Against _that_ shield.  
He sensed Gladiolus stumbling in front of him, but he ground his feet again to receive a second impact. Ignis lost no time while Gladio protected him; they had everything but time. The situation was urgent. The adviser came up to his feet and turned around, throwing the lance and hitting straight into the chest of another creature, whatever that had been. Ignis could easily tell each species apart from only sensing, noises and the reddish shadows that sometimes crossed through his less harmed eye, but he had no time nor the care to stop and analyze each one that he attacked.

They were too many for that.

As he summoned his daggers and turned to a side to face yet another daemon, he heard Gladiolus roaring behind him and apparently finish a daemon, but not a second passed when the Shield of the King had already turned to face another enemy.  
Gladio cursed aloud and hid behind the shield for a moment, before he found the opening he was looking for and attacked the Flan that had been harassing him before he had left the battle to protect Ignis. He had thought the adviser would have fallen unconscious, what with the horrible hit on his head after the Iron Giant tossed him away and had Ignis collide against the hard pavement, but, like always, Ignis was pushing himself so far beyond his limits that logic did not apply to him. 

Prompto, too, was doing phenomenal on his side…but it still did not feel as enough. Daemons continued coming, one after the other, and the situation was growing desperate. 

When the battle first started, there were only three Iron Giants in front of them. But that had been only the beginning. After their brother and now finally king had ascended all the stairs of the main entrance and disappeared through the front doors of the Citadel, the daemons started appearing frantically in a numerous hoard that did not seem to know end. The Iron Giants were a child’s game in comparison to what they were facing now. Whether the daemons had all come from the shattered body of the Chancellor, or they had grown angered at his death and gathered for vengeance, or whether they could sense the True King about to take the throne and wanted to stop him, or it was only coincidence, they could not know; the only thing that mattered was that the daemons did not stop coming, were trying to kill them, and maybe were trying to go into the Citadel. 

That, they could not allow. Noctis was on his way to fulfill the prophecy and his role as the King of Light, and nothing could get in his way. They had gone through ten years of history for him to reach the final goal, Noctis himself had gone through all the hells on Eos only to get that final step. He had had more than only enough troubles; they could not let a daemon through and give him more.

And there was the reason on why the three stayed behind after biding goodbye to their dear brother and friend; on a side, the task to fulfill was for Noctis alone, and it did not include them. They were an obstacle rather than a help, even if only morally. And on the other side, they could not allow the daemons to enter the Citadel and interrupt Noctis’ last sacrifice. It could put his life to risk; and not that the three ignored what the king was about to do in the throne room, but having an interruption like that could carry the risk that Noctis offered his sacrifice but could not finish it, resulting in dying with no result. If they could not save their friend’s life, the least they could do was to make sure it would not be in vain.

Things had been under control at first. Three Iron Giant could be some troubles without their leader, but it was nothing they could not handle on their own. They had been working hard and training for all their lives and particularly harder in the last ten years for moments like this; they were prepared and would do everything in their power to stop the daemons.  
But they had barely been able to bring one down when another Giant started forming on the ground nearby them.  
For every daemon that they brought down, two appeared. 

The variety had also started to become a worrying matter. At first it was only Iron Giants and a few Flans, but the more time they spent there, at the roundabout of the Citadel, the richer the variety and numbers of daemons were; Grim Reapers started coming, Yojimbos, Bombs, and even things like Ariadnes started appearing after a while. They could receive only one hit per daemon and easily win the fight…the problem was when the hoard was endless, and ‘one hit per daemon’ started turning into being beaten slowly but surely. 

Gladio himself had recurred to all the potions he had, and he was sure so had Prompto. The gunman was bleeding very badly from the face, or maybe it was only one very bad cut that had stained most of his cheek and forehead. He looked exhausted, but he continued. Whenever Gladio had a second to pay attention, he could see the blond man’s face contract in absolute pain, and his hand sometimes unconsciously moved towards somewhere on his side. The Shield had tried to keep an eye on him, but Ignis himself had started to have a very bad time.  
When Gladio realized he was having troubles himself, that was when he knew they were screwed for good. 

He was not sure of what Noctis was facing in those moments, and he did not wish for him to hurry…but it had felt like an eternity. Or maybe that was because they had not stopped moving and fighting in any moment; he knew from experience, a second of a serious battle could feel like an entire minute. For him, this had already lasted _hours._ There was only some limit any human could reach…

He was able to dodge the swing of the sword of the Yojimbo, shield from another hit, and ended up being blown away by a Bomb exploding behind him. As if teaming up, the Yojimbo stepped on him and tried to slash down, but Gladio rolled away, only to be hit by a Flan. He started getting beaten by the three daemons, managed to get rid of one, and Prompto appeared to the rescue. Ignis was busy throwing dagger after dagger at another enemy, surrounded and overwhelmed. Again. Like all three of them all over this ridiculous fight. The Shield focused on teaming up with the gunman now that the blond had opened a path to reunite with him. They managed to defeat a couple more monsters, but it took some moments for another Iron Giant to appear, grasp Prompto in a hand, and tossed him away like it had happened to Ignis previously. 

Gladio cursed aloud yet again and looked for the adviser. He saw Ignis using his daggers against a Reaper to defend himself against the shower of attacks, having to step back with every quick hit, and not finding any moment to counterattack. It was almost like the monsters smelled the end and became frantic about it. The Shield turned his attention away of his darling to put up his weapon and avoid being hit. But every time he managed to push his enemy back, his head turned away towards Ignis’ direction, eyes looking desperately for him.

He knew that it was in that instant more than ever before that he had to focus most in the battle, and he had been doing fine…but, ten minutes that had felt like three hours into this hell, his attention had started to turn all on Ignis. He had tried to stop it and retake focus, but the more he tried to not think about Ignis, the more he thought about him. Gladio’s focus was like a sand clock; the sand, his focus, had all been on one side…but the more that the time passed, grain by grain, it was moving to the other side, Ignis. Gladio had had a moment when his focus was divided in half, but now Ignis claimed all his attention, unintentionally. He defended himself almost mechanically; his conscious priority was turning to look at the adviser.

At first, he was not sure of why. He was not growing paranoid about keeping an eye on him in case Ignis needed help; it was part of the reason, but not _everything._ There was something about this fight that made him turn his attention to Ignis, but he could not name what. It was like only during this mess of a fight he was realizing something very, profoundly important, something related to Ignis, and his brain was forcing him to do the thing…but Gladio had no idea what the Thing was. There was something he was forgetting, something he felt he needed to do, something about Ignis, but he could not understand.

He shielded from an attack and was blown away with another. He hit the ground and coughed loudly; he was sure he had broken a rib, and that it had pinched a lung. No potion, no elixir, and most terribly, no more Phoenix Down available, all that he could do was shakily and loudly groan in pain and put a hand to his ribcage. He stayed thrown and Ignis reached for him, breaking a potion on him. The pain eased, but did not disappear. Gladio looked up at his now longtime lover, and could not even be given a moment to think while his body was already standing up, helped by the adviser. 

When Gladio was back up on his feet, he held Ignis’ arms almost by reflex, and the adviser held him back. Even though the younger man could not see, they made eye contact and stayed quiet. They breathed heavily and trembled. And they bled. Ignis had a terribly giant bruise on his right cheek, and his mouth bled like a cascade. One of his ears bled as well, and he had another bruise on the neck. Watching him, the Shield wondered what he had to look like; broken nose bleeding, bruises everywhere, a sleeve cut and the tummy soaked in red through the clothes.  
Ignis started moving the mouth to say something, but they turned as soon as their eyes and senses caught the first movement at a side; immediately, without thinking, Gladio put up his shield and fought back a Bomb, but the impulse made them stumble back and fall to their knees, holding each other for support. 

“Gladio” Ignis breathed out hurriedly, hand tightly holding the older man’s arm. “That was my last potion.”  
The Shield could not reply. He knew that, and he processed the information just fine, but he was thinking about something else. There was something he had to do, but what? He stared at Ignis, who was looking at him as if expecting an answer to more than just his words. For the first time in so long, in too long, Gladio saw his boyfriend’s face reflecting absolute fear. He knew it, too; he knew the way this battle was going. Ignis’ eyes pleaded for the answer still not given, and Gladio shook the head in tiny but quick movements, trying to say something but suddenly unable to speak. 

He could not come with an answer; Ignis warned him and the older man put the shield up again. Both shrugged behind it, feeling the flare that embraced the metal; to fit, they hugged, Ignis burying the face in the crook of Gladio’s neck and the bigger man wrapping his free arm around him to pull him as close as possible. When the flare subsided, Ignis stood up and had started to leave, but the other held him by the wrist and stopped him. Ignis looked at him, confused and still scared. Gladio did not understand at first, but when Ignis forced the hand away to dodge away and counterattack an enemy, he saw it.

Gladio stood up and looked from above his shield, which he slowly removed to a side. He had a clear view of the roundabout from there; giving a quick count, there had to be at least twenty daemons, and not the small kind. Prompto was giving his best, but he was absolutely beaten and wrecked; his face was a red stain among bloodied hair, and he stood in a weird ankle. The man was fighting on a broken leg, without complaining, possibly without even noticing yet. Overwhelmed, with no space for breath or opening to reload or counterattack, he was tossed aside again.  
Gladio looked somewhere else and found Ignis again. The adviser, as overwhelmed, walked backwards and threw his daggers to get rid of the daemons, but each that died was replaced. He too bled and did not seem to be able to last much longer the way he was going.

Gladio made his shield disappear and he looked down at his hands; stained in red, like he had expected. His tummy, too. He was sure he had spit a tooth some minutes ago. He saw more blood on his hands and clothes than he had expected at first, and realized that he had yet not realized the real size of how badly he was hurt.  
When he looked up to the scene before him again, Gladio knew it.  
This was a lost fight.

When a Shield acknowledged the fact, there was no other answer. A Shield of the Lucis Caelum was trained all life with one purpose; survive, no matter the consequences. Win every fight, every battle, no matter the circumstances. Win an entire war on their own, if required. It was fine to accept a defeat, but only when it was for absolutely sure that he had been defeated.  
And the only moment that an Amicitia could be defeated was when they were to die.

The fight was lost. He, as a Shield, was seeing it. He had refused to accept it, had tried to hope they could win against this…but this was too much for them, for anyone. The daemons did not seem any interested in going into the Citadel anymore; they only caused havoc and tried to kill them, and they were succeeding. It had taken them long and great numbers of allies, but they were finally killing the three men.  
This was the night that they died.  
They could continue fighting and it would not be senseless; they would have done this for their king, who was sacrificing it all for them and for everyone in Eos right in those moments.  
But to acknowledge a death is full of pride does not make it any easier.

Gladio was suddenly overwhelmed by terror. He had felt fear before in his life, but never like this; not that it was more than he had ever experienced, only different.  
This terror made him…a bit calm. Which was a bad sign; emotional numbness was equal to hopelessness. And _that_ terrified him even more. 

Looking at his hands like they were the cause of his fear, Gladio lost the breath and stared at them with wide eyes. He looked up and desperately looked for something in the fight, like the answer was somewhere, like Noctis would appear in among the crowd of monsters to put an end to all of this.  
In the search, his eyes found Ignis again.  
And he suddenly understood. 

He watched Ignis move and fight, cry as he did without noticing, roaring, hitting and exhaustedly counterattacking, being hit, being cut, and still come back after every hit to throw one back.

Suddenly, Gladio was back at many moments in only half-a-second; he was back at the Citadel’s infirmary, with the left eye bandaged, cleaning Ignis’ tears of fear while he smiled and promised it to him; he was back at the beginning of their journey, after their first Imperial attack, smiling at an angered-in-a-good-way Ignis and telling him again; he was back at Cape Caem before parting for his trials, kissing a smiling but worried Ignis, and reminding him; he was back at Altissia, before the mess started, telling him again with a playful smile without knowing it was almost the other way around that night; he was back at Zegnautus Keep, after having opened their way through what had looked like a lost fight against a hoard of daemons, breathlessly reminding him once more; he was back at many moments across the ten years of darkness, sometimes crying, sometimes smiling, telling him what his brain had told him to remember across this fight.

He was back a few hours ago, while Noctis opened the main gates for the entrance of the Citadel; not the doors, rather the gates. They had stopped before entering, and Gladio had held his arms, caressing them up and down, lovingly. Ignis had his hands softly rested to the older man’s chest, smiling up at him. Gladio was smiling at him as well, and could not help to give the adviser a little kiss on the forehead when Ignis asked him to be careful.  
“Do everything in your power to not die, alright, my love?” Ignis asked from him, staring blindly and filled of concern up at him, but smiling nonetheless.  
“I’ve told you many times, Iggy” Gladio replied and held one of Ignis’ hands in his own. He brought it up and kissed the grasp of their hands, lovingly. Slowly, he let go and leaned down to rest his forehead to Ignis’. “I won’t die. It’s impossible.”

The Shield pulled apart enough to poke the adviser’s nose with a finger, and gave him a playful smile that Ignis felt rather than saw.  
“I can’t die” Gladio whispered, “without marrying you first.”

Time was strange in that moment, when he was brought back from his half-a-second in the past and back to his present. As if slowing down ten times more than he thought it had already done, he saw everything moving far too slow, slow, like seconds became minutes.  
_Ignis._  
His head was full of the name, and his heart skipped beat. Among all the noise, the grunts, the roars and the sounds of monsters, metal, hissing and a great battle, all that Gladio could hear was his own heart, and his head that had completely emptied except for one word.  
_Ignis._  
Gladio looked around, feeling as if though he too was moving slow, but faster than the rest of the world. His eyes moved right and left, desperately, in the search for his one only desire.  
_Ignis._  
_Ignis…_

‘I cannot die without marrying you first.’

He had yet not married him. And he was going to die in some minutes. _Minutes._ He was minutes away from his death, mid-battle, and had yet not married him. 

_’But I promised him’._

Gladio spotted him. Ignis was pushing away an enemy, throwing dagger after dagger. His visor was broken on the right side, but he had not taken it off. He looked furious and fierce, but the exhaustion was clear. He, too, moved impossibly, ethereally slow. 

_‘That is not a certainty, Gladiolus. Life is fragile. It can be taken in one blink. You cannot take for granted that only because you have a goal you become immortal.’_

Gladio started running in his direction. He summoned his shield and protected himself against more daemons that tried to tackle him, without turning their way or stopping to counterattack, and not taking the eyes off the love of his life. Every second was still an entire minute. 

_‘I know it won’t make me immortal. But I feel like that when I think about it; my life will not be complete without taking your hand in marriage and giving mine to you. I refuse to die until I’ve kissed you as my husband. So, in some way, I literally cannot die.’_

He stumbled once when a Bomb hit his shield very hard, but even then he did not stop. He rounded a daemon like it was a boulder in the way, and the monster, even brainless, seemed to find it strange and startling and did not attack. Gladio did not notice; he continued running. 

_‘I understand that. What I mean is, what if you or we are stuck in a situation when it’s impossible to survive and we haven’t gotten married by then?’_

Gladio saw Ignis avoiding a hit, cutting an arm, roaring out as he spun over himself and threw a lance, and being hit by behind, falling forwards, everything as impossibly slow, frustratingly slow. 

_‘Then I guess that the only answer in such a case, Mister Negativity and Stubbornness...’_

Gladio slashed once with the sword, opened his path in straight line towards his boyfriend, and made no sound as he approached him. Ignis was coming back up on his feet, beaten and bleeding, exhausted and wrecked, but refusing to give up yet.

_‘…would be to marry you in that very same instant.’_

Time returned to its normal pace, and all sounds existed once more. Ignis summoned his daggers and crossed them in front of himself as protection, but the hit did not make it to him; Gladio, again, got in the way and used his shield; the hit was so strong it had pushed his arm against him and he was forced to flex the knees for support. Ignis stayed behind him and turned around to get occupied with the daemons behind them, while Gladio resisted and pushed. He used all his strength to push against his shield, and finally made the daemon stumble back, giving him the perfect chance to come from behind his hideout and slash with the sword. The monster faded in black mist, and even though he knew another one would replace it soon, Gladio turned around.

Ignis, too, was just done with his own enemies. He had summoned his weapons in hands again to continue, but he was stopped when Gladio grabbed and pulled him by the arm. The adviser turned to face him, offering the same look than before; confused, fierce, but still scared.  
“Ignis” Gladio called loud enough to be heard from over the noise of the battle, “please” he yelled shakily and took some breaths before he dared say it “…marry me.”  
The adviser’s expression was decorated with great confusion. It took some seconds before that confusion was joined by a little pinch of pain.  
“What?” Ignis mouthed at him, not understanding the context of the situation within the bigger situation. 

Gladio continued staring at him with pain in the eyes, wondering if Ignis could sense it, and had started to open the mouth again to talk, but they were interrupted. A daemon appeared at their side and tried to slash at them; Gladio raised the shield to protect themselves, being pushed back some inches. He attacked and teamed with Ignis requiring of no words; the adviser quickly slipped past him and counterattacked the daemon while it focused in Gladio. They still took more moments to attack, not always side by side, but always nearby each other. Ignis finished the fight by sinking his lance on top of a monster, and he rolled once in the air before landing on his feet, dumbly; exhausted and hurt, he was unable to have the grace of always.  
As soon as he rose to his feet, Gladio had already rushed at his side again. He had grabbed Ignis by the arm again, but he had to let go to focus on another daemon.

“Ignis Scientia!” Gladio yelled from above the chaos, looking back at the adviser while hiding behind the shield, which was being hit by something. “Under the embrace of the Astrals, before the eyes of the gods…” he started reciting, and Ignis froze for a moment. His mouth opened on its own and he took in a shaky gasp; that was the beginning of the vows of a ceremony of…  
Ignis stayed frozen for a moment, but did not finish processing the idea before he had to turn to attack more enemies. Gladio himself stopped his words to slash and shield some moments.  
“I ask nothing from you, and offer instead” Gladio yelled over the noise, continuing with what he had started. Ignis turned in his direction again, shocked, but was forced to continue fighting: “I offer you my arms, to guard you and keep you safe…”

The Shield interrupted himself again to let out a roar at the time he took impulse and swung the sword against an enemy. He fought some more before he got a pause in which he could turn in Ignis’ direction again.  
“I offer you my strength, to fight through every hell you face” he said, “I offer you my hand, for you to hold whenever you need it” he paused to turn away and slash. He dodged an attack, and stopped another with the sword, and spoke while holding the enemy back, “and I offer you my heart-…for you to do- as you wish.”  
Ignis had said nothing yet. He was still occupied with more daemons, but he was listening. He was trying to make his way back to Gladio, trying to hurry with the battle, and once he was free enough to run towards the Shield, he stopped again to fight back another monster.  
“Gladio!” Ignis called aloud, his back almost pressed to his boyfriend’s as both resisted daemons on both sides. “What are you doing!?”

“I solemnly swear to take care of, guard, guide and love you, make you happy and stand by your side…” Gladio continued loudly so that Ignis could hear him. Both paused and got away of each other when they had to push their respective enemy back. There were some war-cries and some grunts, followed by the sound of metal colliding, some animal shrieking, and struggles. In another pause, Gladio continued “…loyal and proud, down on a knee before you, until the day that my heart…” he was interrupted again. Both fought and Ignis was first to be done. When he was free for a moment, he turned to look at Gladiolus, and saw him fighting some more. Now with some moments to process it, Ignis stared at him with shock and confusion, but started understanding why the other had suddenly burst into wedding vows right in that moment. Gladio crossed a daemon’s heart with the sword, and roughly pulled it out of it, turning in Ignis’ direction. He dropped the shoulders, panting, and looked at the adviser with brokenhearted and exhausted eyes “…until the day that my heart…stops beating and my soul…abandons my body.”

Ignis stared at him with the same wide eye than before. Gladio only stared back, aware that Ignis could sense it, and said nothing for a moment. Ignis’ eyebrow twitched once, and his expression started transforming from confusion to understanding. And with the understanding came the obvious and heartbreaking twitch of pain.  
“Gladio” Ignis whispered. He swallowed visibly, and waited some moments as if waiting for the older man to take back what he had already said. When the pause lingered, Ignis’ pained expression turned slightly in anger. “Gladio…don’t do this.”  
“That is what I have to offer” Gladio told him more quietly now that they were not in the middle of a fight. Both were panting, and he watched Ignis’ expression. It was crossing a sea of emotions, coming from confusion to anger to pain and back to shock and sadness, that returned to the anger.  
“Gladiolus!” Ignis called him as if about to throw a lecture at him, as if nagging, but his frown, while trying to look angered, was clearly only a way to hide the sadness.  
“Ignis Scientia” Gladio called more softly this time, and tried to approach him, “do you accept what little or much I have to offer, and hence accept me, Gladiolus Amicitia, as your wedded husband and partner?”

Ignis stayed quiet. His opened mouth moved as if he tried to say something, but could not, too shocked and wordless for that. He was still frowning, but his good eye started gleaming with a tear.  
“Gladiolus Amicitia…” Ignis tried to sound firm and angered, but his voice trembled when he growled the name. “Don’t you dare- I won’t…do this, not like this! Not right now!”  
“Ignis, the fight is lost” Gladio told him. “Please, don’t let me die without saying ‘I do’” he pleaded and grabbed one of Ignis’ arms. The Shield’s eyes drowned in tears and he finally felt the adrenaline of the fight start being replaced by absolute sadness. “…please, Iggy. Marry me. I can’t…I can’t die without…”  
He did not finish the sentence, but Ignis did not need it. He had heard that phrase throughout all his life, and most of the times it was always something that triggered jokes or kisses, it was always something sweet that threw him into romantic and cheesy fantasies of the future. Not like this.

This was not supposed to happen like this. Gladio’s phrase was meant to give them impulse to break through any hell, it was supposed to be a phrase of hope, not a literal statement.  
The adviser felt his good eye fill with tears, and he closed the eye as if refusing to cry; the blink itself was what caused the first tear to escape him and roll down his cheek, and he looked away, ashamed, and now fully understanding.  
Gladio was trying to marry him in those moments because he could not die without it, and they were about to.  
“Gladio, don’t do this…” Ignis asked him in a broken murmur. “I know we can-…we can…”

But _what_ could they do? The battle was lost. One did not need to be a strategist, he did not need his eyes to know this. The battle was lost.  
“Ignis…” Gladio called lowly, and brought the adviser close to himself. He made his shield disappear so he could hold both of Ignis’ arms, softly but firmly. “…please.”

The adviser was looking up at him with blind eyes, and Gladio focused in that empty iris. Ignis’ good eye was looking all over him as if for once desperately trying to find some opening, some angle where it was not blind to see the Shield’s face, but not finding it. Gladio begged at him with only the gaze, unconsciously. Ignis could not see it, but did not need to. The Shield’s desperation and pain was too profound and he could feel it in the heart. It shrank inside him.  
He had refused to die that night.  
But sometimes refusing was not enough.

Ignis’ lower lip quivered. His frown softened but was replaced by absolute sadness. He was still breathless from the fight, but now he seemed to have even more troubles due to the sudden weight of his heart against his lungs. He dropped another quiet tear, and Gladio silently watched him, waiting.  
“…I do” Ignis whispered, tremblingly and broken, but making eye contact with the Shield. He started nodding and swallowed. “I do” he repeated more firmly and louder.

Before they could say more, Gladio quickly looked up and reacted immediately; he pulled Ignis closer and he summoned the shield. It had vaguely finished materializing when the Yojimbo’s blade hit. Ignis, now behind him, summoned a lance and ran some steps away to get a better angle. They got separated once again by their own necessity to move, run, dodge and fight as they knew how to do it, but tried to stay within each other’s range.  
“Gladiolus Amicitia!” Ignis breathlessly called at the same time that he fought a daemon, slashing down, the words coming out roared sometimes from the effort of hitting and dodging. “Under the embrace of the Astrals, before the eyes of the gods…I-” Ignis paused to dodge once more, groaned as he hit with the lance and moved around. Gladio, while listening, moved during that pause to fight back a monster, and managed to slash the Yojimbo to its end. Ignis took his lance out of a dead daemon body and, panting, he turned to his… _fiancé_ , and tried to continue. “I ask nothing from you either, and offer instead as well…”

They had to pause again when more daemons approached them. The distant sound of firearms echoed through the place, monsters kept coming, breaking some walls in the way sometimes, and both men fought, sometimes as a team and sometimes having to take their own space.  
“I offer you…my strength to not leave you alone in the fight…” Ignis yelled for him as he fought, sometimes stopping between words whenever he had to throw a punch or dodge. He managed to push back many daemons, and, breathing heavily, he turned to look at Gladio. “…or to fight in your place.”  
Gladio stared back at him some moments, processing the words. He swallowed and only stared away when he was attacked once more. While fighting, he still made sure to keep an ear very attentive to Ignis; the vows differed from person to person, and he did not want to miss a single word of his fiancé’s.  
“I offer you all my knowledge and skills, for you to share and take” Ignis continued talking as he fought; Gladio had found some pauses in among, but the monsters were trying to overwhelm them and were not giving them another chance. The Shield was hit and thrown away, but he managed to stay on his feet, stumbling. Ignis paused to slash with the daggers over and over, getting rid of an enemy. Once he got a bit of space, he turned to Gladio and tried to hurry his vows. “I offer you my hand, to hold back yours-“ he turned in time to dodge an attack, but an unexpected one hit him and made him stumble backwards. He was hit again and lost his visors, but he used the fall as impulse to roll, stay on his feet, and throw the lance. He stood still, panting, while hearing the daemon shriek, and his eyes blindly looked for Gladio again. “…as my loyalty.”

The situation was only turning more urgent. The more they fought, the less chances they had to win, but they could not simply stand still. Daemons kept coming, and the three men were struggling. The noises grew louder, the battle only grew more frantic.  
“And I offer you the entirety of my heart” Ignis continued, loud enough for the Shield to hear him from the distance in between. They paused yet again to focus in the fight. Gladio spun over himself for impulse and, with a roar, he threw his sword to a daemon at the other side of the roundabout, stopping it from attacking Prompto and giving the gunman time enough to recover and run to a better spot. Gladio summoned the sword back in his hand and heard Ignis groan somewhere behind him; when he turned, the adviser was fighting back a Reaper, slashing once, twice, three and four times before the daemon shrieked and disappeared. Ignis, still panting, stumbled a bit on his feet not from effort but rather exhaustion. Still, he turned to look at Gladio again. “…for it does not belong anywhere else.”

Despite the long pauses, Gladio had been paying attention and repeating the words in his head to memorize Ignis’ vows. There was nothing else that mattered to him, not anymore; all his past and the rest of the world mattered nothing in the moment that he knew he was to die, the only important thing was this, his wedding, and everything about it.  
Both turned almost at the same time when different enemies reached them. Both had to part ways again and focus on different daemons; shields pushed, daggers flew around, there were groans and new hits and cuts, animal shrieks and the sound of metal everywhere. After calming the situation (as ‘calm’ as it could get), both approached each other but stood back-to-back, the adviser holding his daggers up and Gladio holding both shield and sword. The Shield heard his fiancé pant trying to recover the breath.  
“I solemnly swear…” Ignis’ voice trembled; there was sadness, but also physical pain. He sounded as exhausted as Gladio felt. “…to take care of…serve, protect…” he paused and coughed. The words that followed trembled more, and Gladio could hear Ignis’ tears in them. “…and love you…and make you happy and…stay by your side….”

They had to pause again. Both moved forwards to attack their new enemies. The fight went on for some moments, and each found they had more struggles with each enemy; each time it was harder to keep balance, to not stumble, to shield and dodge, and easier to be hit. This gave them more troubles than before, and as he could not found a pause, Ignis decided to talk as they fought.  
“…loyal and proud, gifting part of my soul to you-” he dodged once, was hit, and he had to jump to a side to avoid the enemy. He tried to come up to his feet, stumbled and stayed down on a knee, and lowered the head. Breathless, he still continued. “…until the day that my heart-” a small moan of pain interrupted. “…stops beating and…my soul…abandons my body.”

Ignis raised the lance in time to stop an attack, and with a roar, as if it gave him the strength, he pushed the enemy back with great but successful effort, until he was in position to swing the lance and get rid of the daemon, on the price of a cut on the arm.  
The vows were supposed to end there. But the adviser made one more addition. He ran towards his fiancé and received him in arms when Gladio was thrown backwards by the explosion of a monster. With some stumbling and luck, they did not fall but almost. They recovered balance and Gladio got himself off his fiancé and stayed with the guard up, but Ignis suddenly wrapped his fingers around one of the Shield’s arms. The gesture made Gladio look back and down at him.  
“I offer, as a last vow” Ignis told him, “to stay with you…until the very end.”

Gladio stared at his fiancé’s face, taking some time on it. Ignis still looked frightened; despite the blindness, his eye reflected it along great sadness. He looked inhumanly exhausted, the kind that, Gladio knew, would knock any man out as soon as adrenaline faded. Gladio looked down at the hand that Ignis had around his arm, and gently brushed it off, only so that the Shield could hold it in his own hand, incongruently softly despite the injuries, the heavy breath and the battle that was happening around them. Ignis looked at him with the blind eye and dropped a quiet tear. Gladio could feel his own eyes burning, had felt it since the beginning of everything, but he had not been able to tell if he had been crying as well or not; his face burnt, he was sweating and bleeding a bit, so it was difficult to tell tears apart.  
“Gladiolus Amicitia” Ignis started asking him, low and hurrying but not rushing, taking advantage of the breath they were allowed mid-battle and not wanting this to be interrupted “do you accept what little or much I have to offer, and hence accept me, Ignis Scientia, as your wedded husband and partner?”

A rumble interrupted them. Gladio put his shield up and both hid behind it, lowering the head, at the time a Bomb crashed against it. They stumbled backwards and fell to their knees, but they did not let go of each other’s hand. Gladio ended up down on a knee, shield up, and he wrapped his sword arm around Ignis, pulling him close; Ignis leaned into the embrace, face in the crook of the Shield’s neck. They stayed quiet, eyes closed, and let out a groan when the Bomb hit them again, sliding them back some more. Gladio felt the floor disappear under the tiptoe of the foot he had behind himself. A quick glance over his shoulder let him know they had been pushed to the edge of the main level; another hit could make them fall off to the lower level.

He kept the shield up and looked at the adviser half-guarded in his other arm.  
“I do” he said firmly, keeping Ignis protectively hugged even though the adviser pulled apart enough to not keep the face hidden at his neck, and so they could make eye contact. It had always felt important to Ignis, to make eye contact even with a blind eye and a shut one. They held the gaze some more moments in silence, and Gladio repeated it. “I do.”

After his reply, Ignis moved a hand up to rest it against the Shield’s cheek. He was to open the mouth and continue their express ceremony, when another rumble and the sound of metal interrupted. They did not even look; the Iron Giant, faster and hidden behind Gladio’s shield, slammed a fist into the ground right before them. The impact made the ground break, some of the edges to collapse, and the wave sent the men flying backwards. No railing anymore after these eighteen minutes (eighteen…that had felt like three hours) into the battle, there was nothing that could hit them but also nothing that could stop the fall.  
Usually, the corners of the main entrance of the Citadel were full of water; no service in ten years, they were empty and so, instead of falling into a pool, they fell a couple meters down against harsh ground. 

When Gladio landed, he groaned loudly but still could hear the crack of something in his body, though he could not feel the pain. When everything hurt, a broken bone was only one in so much more and went unnoticed. His head bounced on the floor and he lost senses for a moment. There was some beep in his ear that replaced the noises of the battle above. He tasted his own blood and opened the eyes, but could not focus his sight. He tried moving the hands, but only managed to slowly curl the fingers.  
While he was coming back to his senses, he felt a hand on his back, and the other on his shoulder; his sight came back to focus and he heard the distant echo of his name being called, and, after a moment, he recovered his senses. The noises returned as loudly and everything was clear again.

Gladio moved up on a forearm and turned; Ignis was there, at his side, down on his knees and staring at him as if though he was not blind. The adviser’s hand, that had lost the glove somewhen long ago, touched Gladio’s face and looked around to spot how much blood and how much damage it had taken. The Shield let him for only a moment, before taking his hand with his own to stop it. Ignis caught the request and stopped checking him. Gladio did not sit up. Without needing to tell each other, both decided to skip most of the speech that had to follow and went straight to the most important part; finishing this.  
The Iron Giant dropped from the upper level to theirs, and the ground rumbled.  
Ignis cupped the Shield’s face in his hands and tried to say something, but could not. Gladio did not rush him.

The fear was now completely clear in Ignis’ face; no more urgency of battle, no anger, no need to fight back. There was not even hope any longer. All that Gladio saw in his blind eye was absolute, pure _terror._ And he did not blame him. To accept one’s death, to acknowledge the moment is to come, to go in peace…it does not make death any easier.  
“We may now kiss” Ignis whispered to him with what little strength he had left inside. He reached down and hesitated only a moment, as if locking the kiss would be finally accepting their death and not prepared for it. Gladio himself hesitated for a moment; admitting he could not die before marrying Ignis was a way of telling the universe it was fine to kill him as soon as he married him, and he too was afraid, terrified of that. 

But, finally, Ignis got closer and pressed their lips together. He held Gladio’s face with more strength than he was conscious of, but the Shield did not even feel it. All that he felt was Ignis’ wonderful hands on his face, holding it like they had done for so many years, and his lips. His bloodied, injured, but still wonderfully soft and beautiful lips. The mouth made of celestial tears and heavenly silk. Gladio moved a hand up and looked for Ignis’ face, to caress his cheek as they kissed. Eyes closed, both let their lips slip between one another and reconnect. They breathed shakily between kisses, altered from the battle, though mostly terrified, but did not break the kiss. They held each other’s face and kissed like it was both the first and last time, as if though the outcome of the battle depended on how much love they could show in only one kiss, but without going too heavy or desperate. It was a wedding kiss; it had the right amount of passion without stepping into the line of obscenity. 

After it had been sealed with a kiss, Gladio pulled apart from his now husband.  
He brought Ignis’ face close so they could rest their foreheads together, and kept the eyes closed. He caressed the adviser’s cheek with his thumb, smudging the blood and tears across the skin.

Ignis’ breath trembled and he silently cried, and moved an inch forwards to rub the tip of his nose against Gladio’s; one last moogle kiss, their personal and favorite gesture of all life.  
“I love you” Ignis whispered to him quietly and with a thread of a voice, and started properly breaking into tears.  
“I love you” Gladio whispered back and opened the eyes, his hand never leaving Ignis’ face. “My husband…”

Ignis blindly stared at him some moments, crying, leaning the face against his loved one’s hand.

Their moment only lasted a little longer; soon, the steps of the Iron Giant had gotten close enough for them to feel the ground starting to shatter under themselves. Both turned in its direction; the daemon was now standing right in front of them, at barely two human steps away.

At the same time that the daemon raised his blade, Gladio quickly moved up and took Ignis in arms and returned to the ground in one single flowing movement, in a way so that when he went back down, he pulled Ignis down to the floor so, instead of being on his knees, he was thrown on his side on the ground, with the upper part of Gladio’s body hovered over him, as a human shield. It was more a reflex and a gesture than any useful action; the size of the blade would strike them both in one movement, regardless of who shielded who. But it felt important to Gladio; he could not die without having tried one last attempt to protect Ignis, even if it was useless. Ignis, without strength or time to contradict him, hugged him instead. In only a matter of a few three seconds, Gladio had moved up, pulled Ignis down, half-hovered over him like somebody trying to protect someone else from a collapsing roof, and Ignis had wrapped his arms tightly around the Shield’s shoulders, trembling but firm, the face buried in the crook of the older man’s neck.

Gladio closed the eyes tightly and felt his heart beating like a scared bunny inside his chest, and he waited. He had said all his life that he could not die without marrying Ignis.  
So there he was. Having married him.  
Life was free to kill him now. 

They heard the sound of screeching metal as the Iron Giant raised the arm and its weapon.

Gladio waited in vain. 

When he realized he had waited long enough and nothing had happened, and after a few screeching noises that sounded like an agonizing daemon, Gladio opened the eyes, confused. He did not move for a moment, as if too scared to look back and find some heavenly garden behind, where Noctis and Prompto could be waiting for them. 

But no. When Ignis’ hug loosened and Gladio could pull apart from him, and when he looked back, what he saw was the Iron Giant melting into a puddle.

And then he looked up; there, at the upper level, were no more daemons, not a single one.  
In their place, morning sunlight.

Dawn.


End file.
